In Lacking Epinephrine
by Ovo
Summary: Wherein Kaim learns Jansen's skills, because Seth doesn't want to.


_**In Lacking Epinephrine**_

Somehow, being fatally wounded and dying did little to stop Jansen's griping. This made the situation doubly inconvenient to Seth, who found the situation doubly irritating, and to Kaim, who was trying not to find the situation irritating and furthermore trying not to give a damn.

The pain – which Kaim thought Jansen should have been used to by now, although he could not remember the details of the seedy nightlife and might have been mistaken – was allegedly 'too much,' for Jansen to properly grasp the magic and heal himself. This was likely a lie, judging by the way Jansen that tenaciously clung to life like a limpet… Although Kaim was not entirely certain he remembered what a limpet was, and therefore uncertain the analogy applied. But..._ there was a ship set sail once, and he had been a man of the sea..._

Seth grabbed his arm and dragged him off for a more private conversation, albeit still in range of Jansen's accusations of abandonment and the lack of camaraderie in the world. In fact, he tried to drag himself along the forest floor after them, until Seth snapped at him to stay where he was.

"Look, I think he's already worn himself out," she confided. Inwardly, Kaim agreed; this was what he had been well on his way to suspecting before he was puzzled over the limpets and whether Jansen resembled one or not. "He was fatigued," she tapped aside her head for emphasis, "going into that fight, and all that extra spellslinging only made it worse."

Mortals, Kaim surmised, whether for the first time or the last, truly needed to realize their own limitations.

"How many of them have you been around?" she asked, then shook her head. She was as muddled as he was. "No, wait, I mean have you ever...- _Do you remember what to do?_"

He thought about it at first, and then some more, then nodded. "Yeah. I think I remember what to do."

"Good," Seth smiled, making his stomach sink as he realized _why_, which she clearly elucidated, "Because I certainly don't want him rattling around upstairs."

"And what makes you think I do?" Kaim asked, on the inward defensive.

"I don't," Seth told him, "But I ain't doing it, and _you_ are the nice one."

"Guys!" Jansen cut in, "Dying!" When all that did was silence the argument into a blatant and unlikely to be resolved stare-off, he added, "Still dying over here!"

"Fine," Kaim sighed at last. Seth studied him carefully, as though she expected him to further object.

"Okay?"

"Alright."

"... you sure?"

Sidestepping her, Kaim returned to Jansen's side, kneeling in the carpet of pine needles, desperately trying to recall _how_ this was done. Turning to Seth for help, he faltered.

"So it's... you have to..." he made a vague hand gesture, and looked moderately confused, "Right?"

"Yeah," she didn't look convinced. On the other hand, she didn't look like she knew either, "Yeah, I think so."

Kaim nodded, and turned back to Jansen. For his part, the mortal was looking between them with equal parts skepticism and alarm, although the alarm was difficult to see under the blood loss and the skepticism was startling to slack. With no time to lose, Kaim leaned in to share the most sensual kiss he could remember, although he could not remember whom it was originally intended for. For a brief moment, Jansen's griping ceased completely, until Kaim had retreated to a safe distance, whereupon it returned, meek though it had become.

"What the hell was that?" he demanded. Kaim shot him a warning glance as he recited the healing spell verbatim from the mortal's own memory.

"Some kind of... you know, _mind thing_," Seth remembered out loud as the sorcery pieced him back together. Kaim stood, wobbling past her. "It needs a heavy dose of emotion on both sides to-... What?"

Startled, Kaim tore his gaze from her chest. "Sorry."

"Yeah," Seth replied through clenched teeth, narrowing her eyes at Jansen, who was oblivious in picking himself back up from the brink of certain death. "Don't worry about it."

"We should keep moving," Kaim reminded her, not particularly interested in resuscitating Jansen again, should the need arise; especially as he did not know if he would be able to recall the spell in two minutes, or whether that would fade with his interest in Seth's strangely alluring feminine traits. In the meanwhile, he preoccupied himself with trying to remember who it was he had been kissing.

**_the end_**

* * *

**Working Title**: Skills

**Inspiration**: Wondering about the game mechanics.

**Noteworthy**: First Lost Odyssey fic, hurrah!

**Disambiguation**: Set early, early in the game.

_Derivative work of material © Mistwalker._


End file.
